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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

4 Months= 1/3 of a YEAR!

Lately I have been thinking about little man's age in comparison to a year! I probably shouldn't be because it makes me go crazy; I cannot believe how fast he is aging!

What a month it has been! This has been the most challenging yet most enjoyable month so far! At the beginning of the month Gabriel began sleeping 8.5 hours uninterrupted at night as well as napping decently! Half way though the month we traveled north and then it was game over... For the two weeks to follow we had a baby who was waking up every couple of hours at night, experiencing terrifying night terrors, and napping maybe an hour and a half during a span of 13 hours! The hardest part of all of this was that Christopher was working grave shift... I only had help with G a couple hours a day and most days I felt like I could break down and cry at any given moment. When we travel with Gabriel he is thrown off for a little bit and the longer the stay the longer the struggles to get back to normal at home. It makes sense to me, I am sure it is rather overwhelming to experience new smells, faces and places! Though it is family, he doesn't know that yet, nor does he remember or recognize anyone besides Christopher and I! We're starting to get to the stage of 'stranger danger;' he just isn't as happy or content with new people. That all has got to be super stressful to him! On top of Gabriel having to re adapt when we got home, the environment he knew was not as he remembered it; dad immediately started a new shift. I believe the hardest part on Gabriel with Chris being on graves was how disrupted his napping became because I took him out on all my errands rather than sometimes leaving him home with Chris like when Chris was on swings. G had a hard time getting a nap in while cruising around in his car seat which lead to fussiness, over exhaustion, and ultimately night terrors. Night terrors are uncommon for his young age but can be caused by over exhaustion. These episodes were some of the worst things I have ever experienced! Gabriel would be quiet one second and screaming on the top of his lungs the next. If I touched him it got worse, if I spoke it got worse, the only thing that worked was nursing if I could get him latched in his hysterical state. He was asleep the entire time.

On the other hand we began being gifted with giggles and laughter this month! He also doesn't seem to be far from crawling! I know it sounds crazy but he performs all the motions repeatedly while on tummy time, just working on strengthening those muscles. When I watch him during tummy time it seems strange that he isn't moving very far, the motions are down! Sitting up by his self doesn't seem too far off either! We're still working on rolling from back to tummy. Gabriel will roll 3/4 of the way but then roll back to his back! He holds conversations with us in his own special way, puts everything in his mouth and loves being loud! He had discovered how to make certain sounds, before he was just making them randomly when he was exploring his noises but now certain sounds are intentional! One day he spent all day happy screeching at the top of his longs over and over again! Another day he repeatedly buzzed his lips together! I have heard him say 'mom' but I know it was of course by accident with no association to me.

The most surprising aspect of this last month is how much Gabriel has grown! Currently he is about to be done with his 9mo Carter clothes (already wearing 12mo Carter PJs), wearing 6-12 months in Gap, Old Navy, Gymboree and 12mo in Gerber. He's a long boy; he grows out of length first! We've discovered that Old Navy/GAP has the best fit for his long and lean body. At the doctor's for his 4 month check up he measured 27" (97th percentile) and weighed in at just a little over 16lbs (90-95th percentile). He's climbed up in height and stayed the same in weight as far as percentiles go!

Some other ways life has changes:

Got a semi 'mom' cut. Did a subtle bob, chopped off almost 6" of hair! Not that it is terribly noticeable since I typically had it pulled back!

Have finally realized that serving canned vegetables at dinner is perfectly acceptable

It isn't necessary to separate laundry

Cannot believe that the next monthly update will be from Japan! My mom pointed out the other day that when Gabriel gets back from Japan he will have live more of his life in Japan than the United States, crazy!